Behind the scenes at Canon's new Burbank Technology and Support Center

Behind the scenes: Canon Burbank

Whatever a filmmaker's post-production workflow looks like, chances are pretty good they can replicate it here. The facility supports all major editing suites (Avid, DaVinci, Adobe, and Apple), and even includes both Mac and Windows systems so visitors can work on whatever system is most comfortable for them.

There are also three reference displays for use while editing and grading: a 30-inch Canon DP-V3010 4K reference display and a 24-inch Canon DP-V2420 1000NIT HDR reference display (both of which cost around $30K), and also a 'consumer confidence' display that's representative of what would be found in a nice home theater. This gives a colorist a rough idea of what the image will look like on a consumer device.

Insane... Canon should have a Service Center in the heart of NYC. There are MORE, advertising agencies, TV Networks, Magazines, Newspapers, Photographers and modeling agencies here than ANY OTHER place on the planet. The service center in NJ is a NICE TRY. You need a place in NYC where people and companies can walk in. Canon will make MORE money and those pesky CPS shipping charges alone will pay the rent. The many ways Canon can Market, Promote, Sell and Service from a Canon Center in NYC is I-N-S-A-N-E. The Japanese Resturants here are much better than NJ too! :)

Also, Ive been screaming at Canon for workflow solutions for phoyograohers for years. Canon HATES still photographers. Get the video JUNK out of my 1DXMKII. Give me two of the same cards. Dedicate the ENTIRE camera to photography NOT video. Canon does not get it.

I got this question from some other people via private message as well, so I checked into it. According to Canon, it is possible to get the C-Log update performed at the Burbank facility on a walk-in basis. However, the wait time will depend on how much they have in the queue from other customers. It's probably a good idea to give them a call before heading over to get an estimate.

"If you happen to live in Southern California, the center is open for walk-in visits from 9-5 Monday-Friday." - heck, If was visiting that part of the country I'd want to go in just to check it out!

"In fact, Canon told us that its engineers, along with the construction firm, spent over a week just building the projection wall to ensure that it was perfectly vertical and without imperfections." - Just a week? And what happens when the inevitable small tremor messes with that perfect wall?

"There are also three reference displays for use while editing and grading: a 30-inch Canon DP-V3010 4K reference display and a 24-inch Canon DP-V2420 1000NIT HDR reference display (both of which cost around $30K), and also a 'consumer confidence' display that's representative of what would be found in a nice home theater." - I'd love to stand before all of them and see if I can tell a difference! It's hard for me to visualize what the different colors look like.

You can't tell from the photos, but the difference between the HDR display and the others is very noticeable when you're standing in front of them. The standard 4K reference display doesn't look that much different than the consumer display (it's just very accurate), but the HDR display makes it feel like you're looking through a window instead of at a screen.

It turns out the facility is capable of a lot more than 4K or HDR. Apparently it's wired to support uncompressed 8K workflows, which will likely be required by many productions in the not too distant future.

Can't speak for you, and my name isn't Sally, but I am absolutely not ready for 4K video. The file sizes are too big to store and take ages to copy.

My computer hates trying to edit them and, unedited, they are just 5 seconds of interest hidden in a 3 minute clip.

If I want a cup of tea, I just start to show my mum some of my unedited video clips, and even a mothers love and enthusiasm can't overcome the urge to say "I'm putting the kettle on, who wants a cuppa".

I know, because years ago when most things were still analog trying to be digital, I had high end Canon video cameras and lens and did all these things myself as a hobby, and then I got married and a decision vis a vis time allocation had to be made.

Photography was my compromise and this relentless push back to video brings me out in a cold sweat.

Most modern devices can process 4k though - Happily editing 4k on my iPad Pro this week!

But yes, file sizes are a bit of a problem right now. A lot of laptops now ship with SSD which is great for performance and most people's file volumes but fills up very quickly with 4k video. On a desk top, at least you can load up with some 6TB hard disks.

There's a lot going for 4k capture with 1080p editing, if you're not doing pro work. Often I'll shoot 4k , export to 1080p for a quick edit, if its holidays, kids events etc that Im sharing with family. I can always go back to the 4k for future 'productions' if I like, and the 4k is there to pull out stills if I spot a good shot.

I'd love to work there, but realize that I'm not qualified according to image #4 - I don't have a beard. :-)

In a reasonably clinical environment where one is disassembling sensitive gear and hope to keep dust and hair out of the gear, I thought they would be wearing caps and face masks for those with facial hair. :-\

When I worked on computers, to protect the circuit boards from Electrostatic Discharge we used earthing straps on our wrists to keep a circuit to ground, I don't see that here... interesting.

You may be right about the closest chap - generally people wear the ESD strap on their non-dominant wrist. Both people appear to be right-handed and I agree I was intrigued by the thing on the wrist of the chap in the background...

Considering how much hair and dead skin we shed in a day, and how bad that would be inside a precision optical device, I am surprised they are not using coverings.

An interesting comparison to make here is the Panasonic GH5. The video community is very excited about Panasonic's pre-announced firmware upgrade that will add a 400Mbps video codec to the GH5. That's pretty close to the bit rate used by the 5D Mark IV and 1D X Mark II to record 4K in Mjpeg, so it seems a bit unfair for the community to praise Panasonic while criticizing Canon for what is essentially the same bit rate.

It's inefficient from the perspective that Mjpeg saves every individual frame as a separate image. In contrast, H.264 uses a GOP (group of pictures) structure that only records a complete frame at set intervals (an I-frame). For the in-between frames, only the difference between frames is recorded.

The H.264 approach allows more opportunity for compression, so it's certainly possible to get by with lower bit rates, but more compression usually equates to reduced video quality. Once you reach the point where H.264 bit rates are effectively the same as Mjpeg (as is the case with the upcoming GH5 firmware), the argument against Mjpeg isn't quite as strong. (Though it's arguably not the first choice of many videographers.)

It's a good question. While you can probably make some reasonably safe high level comparisons – e.g. any 500Mbps codec is likely going to give you better quality than a 50Mbps codec, no matter which codecs are involved – it's probably difficult to compare within a narrow range. For example, H.265 is more efficient than H.264, so for a given bit rate H.265 should give you better quality. (Or, alternatively, the same quality at a lower bit rate.)

For all the downsides of Mjpeg, one thing I haven't been critical of is the quality of 4K video from Canon DSLRs. (Ignoring rolling shutter, which is a different issue.)

That's some nice video. To give credit where it's due, Sony's mirrorless cameras generally have very good video specs and perform consistently well in this area. That said, the Canon DSLRs that shoot 4K can produce beautiful footage as well. This page has a couple similar videos I shot with the Canon 1D X Mark II for our review of that camera.

Sony mirrorless cameras typically have a deep feature set for videographers, but Canon gets a lot of credit for dual pixel autofocus which, in my experience, is the gold standard for video AF. Each system has its pros and cons, but both are very capable.

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